Rezina District
Holcim cement plant and 10th-century cave monastery; population dropped 29% (2014-24) as pollution from Transnistrian factories drifts across the Dniester.
The Țipova monastery—18 caves carved into limestone cliffs between the 10th and 12th centuries—overlooks the Dniester from Rezina's rugged plateau. This landscape, simultaneously ancient and industrial, defines a district where Lafarge Ciment (now part of Holcim Group) operates one of Moldova's major cement plants. The raw materials—limestone, stone, sand, clay—lie beneath a terrain shaped by millennia of erosion, waiting to become construction material.
Across the Dniester, the Rîbnița cement and metallurgical complex in Transnistria emits pollution that drifts into Rezina's villages. Residents of Mateuti report multiplying illnesses; the toxic cloud is visible at dawn. This environmental colonialism—production in separatist territory, health consequences in Moldovan jurisdiction—captures the asymmetry of the frozen conflict. Rezina's population has collapsed from 42,486 in 2014 to 30,243 in 2024, a 29% decline that outpaces most Moldovan districts.
By 2026, the Saharna and Țipova nature reserves (670 and 430 hectares respectively) may anchor an ecotourism alternative to cement dependency. Stephen the Great's 1495 confirmation of village ownership places Rezina's settlements among the oldest documented in Moldova. Whether that heritage translates to economic value depends on infrastructure that makes the Dniester plateau accessible to visitors who currently bypass it for Chișinău.